The New York City Story

New York City was the first center of the recording industry in the world, beginning in the 1890s, and the city attracted professional musicians from all over Latin America.

Cuban musical styles like the rumba, mambo and cha cha cha were widely popularized by New York bands and recording labels through the 1950s.

Puerto Ricans also participated in the development of those styles and, by the mid-20th century as their population grew not only in numbers but in the music industry, they fueled the development of salsa music, popularizing it internationally in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent decades, the population of Dominican immigrants rose sharply. Caribbean Latinos, many of whom are of African descent, have also had extensive musical exchange with African Americans in New York.